We’re back home from our New Orleans trip with the Protestant Student Ministries of Cornell University. We came home tired but feeling great.
 
If you go to New Orleans looking for the music, the French Quarter, and the food, you’ll find it much as it always was. What’s changed are the houses and the homes. I noticed that the wealthier parts of New Orleans seem to be recovering quickly. The people who live in those parts have good insurance, of course. Many have already repaired their homes. It’s the poorer people who are struggling the hardest, as usual. There isn’t as much lower-income housing as before, so rental prices have gone up. There are thousands of people who would love to go back to New Orleans, but they can’t afford the rent now. Some families lost homes that were passed down over several generations. They don’t have the money or credit to buy a new home. Wealthy professionals are returning to New Orleans, but many people can’t afford to go back.

New Orleans is putting itself back together, but I wonder how you rebuild a culture without so many of the people who formed the culture in the first place. There was a lot of energy that came from the old neighborhoods where people of modest means lived. You can play the music, make the food, and even put on an impressive Mardi Gras. But what will it mean without the life and energy of those who lived there and are now gone? I guess time will answer that question.

That’s why It meant so much to me to be working with Habitat for Humanity. We weren’t rebuilding mansions or restoring restaurants. We were building modest homes in an old neighborhood. The kinds of homes that are needed for people who would love to return but cannot right now.

While we were working at the Habitat site, a car pulled up. There was a man and a woman with their young son inside. The back seat was filled with their belongings. They were driving around, looking for an affordable place to live. New Orleans is their home, but they can’t afford a house in the post-Katrina reality of their city. They asked me if we were building subsidized housing for low-income people. You should have seen their eyes when I told them that Habitat doesn’t give homes away, but provides interest free loans for working people.

“You call Habitat and apply for a home,” I said. “You have to work 300 hours on other houses and help build your own, but you get an interest-free mortgage. So you are buying your home. You’ll own it and build equity in it.”

They were thrilled. It was like someone was showing them the promised land. They took the phone number and said they were going to call the next day. “You mean we would own our home?” the woman kept asking. They didn’t think such a thing was possible.

Habitat for Humanity is not a charity. It’s important that people know that. They don’t give homes away. They make it possible for hard-working people with children to buy a home. Habitat homeowners have a mortgage, just like any other home owner. There is dignity in this, and the dignity is very apparent in the excitement you see when you work beside those who are putting in their 300 hours of “sweat equity.” It’s an amazing thing to experience, and it is the sort of thing conservatives and liberals can appreciate. It’s the classic “hand up” instead of a “hand out.”

Habitat for Humanity is a beautiful thing. An almost perfect solution to a hard problem. I was honored to be there and to have a small part in it.

On our final night, I did a kind of silly interview with the 17 college students we worked with. I asked each one a silly question and a serious question. We recorded it and I made a 25 minute audio file. You can listen to it if you like.

To all the Cornell students, thank you so much for letting Jeanene and I be a part of this with you. We came to love all of you in the short time we were together. If you are ever in San Antonio, give us a shout.

Gordon & Jeanene

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My third set of pictures is online at Flickr. There is also a slideshow.

Doing the interviews

The French Quarter at night

The pink-haired guy (mentioned in the audio file)